Largest experience in Illinois with ABO Incompatible and Cross Match Positive in living donor kidney transplant

One of two programs worldwide offering living donors for the abdominal organs: kidney liver, pancreas, intestine, combined liver/bowel, combined kidney/pancreas

Only program offering combined living donor transplant from parent to child less than five years of age

Many of our patients are part of our clinical trials of new medication regimens to prevent rejection and promote long term function of the transplanted kidney. To date, we have performed over 2,250 kidney transplants.

Living Donor Program

While laparoscopic nephrectomy is available in other institutions, the University of Illinois at Chicago has taken the procedure a step further by performing the world’s first successful robotic-assisted laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy, using the “Da Vinci Surgical System”. (Link to robotic information) There are several advantages to using this technique:

Robotic system allows a greater freedom of movements and recreates the hand eye coordination and 3-D vision that is lost in standard laparoscopic procedures.

This groundbreaking, minimally invasive procedure for kidney retrieval has become the standard protocol for performing living-donor nephrectomies.
The use of living-related and living non-related kidney donors have been a fundamental part of our expanding program. The short and long-term results of a kidney transplant using living donors are greatly superior to deceased donors, as there is less chance of rejection. A living donor also can drastically shorten the waiting time, allowing the recipient to be transplanted sooner and possibly avoid other renal complications and dialysis.
A concerted effort from our physician and transplant coordinators, as well as the use of ABO-incompatible and cross-match positive donors, has allowed our program to have an extremely high ratio of living donor kidney transplants in relation to the number of patients referred.

The presence of a positive cross-match or ABO-incompatibility was previously considered an absolute contraindication for kidney transplant. At UIC, we use plasmapheresis and intravenous immunoglobulin to decrease the levels of antibodies and allow for successful transplantation

The UIC experience with positive cross-match transplants from July 2001 through December 06 includes:

In recent years, a number of different strategies have been employed in order to desensitize ABO-incompatible patients and make transplant possible.

The UIC experience from July 2001 through December 06 includes:

1 year patient survival – 12/12 (100%)

1 year graft survival – 11/12 (91.6%)

Deceased Donor Program

A safe approach to cadaver kidney transplantation. An increasing number of candidates are regularly evaluated and placed on our active waiting list. While expanded criteria donors have become a common practice for many institutions, our philosophy is that UIC will not transplant any kidney graft that would not be acceptable for our own family members.
Our recent results in cadaver kidney transplant are reported below:

Calendar Year 2006

Deceased Donor (33 transplants)

Patient: 96.96% (32/33)

Graft: 96.96% (32/33)

Fiscal Year 2006

Deceased Donor (34 transplants)

Patient: 94.11% (32/34)

Graft:85.29% (29/34)

Fiscal Year 2007

Deceased Donor (31 transplants)

Patient Survival:96.77% (30/31)

Graft: 96.77% (30/31)

A-V Hemodialysis Access

Hemodialysis access is an integral part of kidney failure treatment. A-V Hemodialysis Access may be an option in treating your patients’ kidney failure if they are living with one of the following diseases: